Shark Week’s Luke Tipple is joined by longtime filmmaker and Emmy-award-winner Andy Casagrande to swap behind-the-scenes stories and the future of filming sharks.
Shark Week’s Luke Tipple is joined by longtime filmmaker and Emmy-award-winner Andy Casagrande. He’s filmed and appeared in dozens of shark documentaries, and might just be the most prolific shark cinematographer in history. He talks with Luke about his career, the contentious term “shark porn,” and the future of the industry. And at the end, our researcher Sierra talks about the unprecedented ways that sharks are currently endangered.
Shark Week continues all week long on Discovery starting at 8p ET. For the latest, head to SharkWeek.com.
Find episode transcripts here: https://shark-weeks-daily-bite.simplecast.com/episodes/lights-camera-teeth-making-shark-docs-andy-casagrande
00:00:00:01 - 00:00:07:21
Luke Tipple
Today, we're joined by a Shark Week legend and in our shark bite will discover if shark conservation is going in the right direction.
00:00:07:23 - 00:00:15:21
Unknown
You’re listening to the Shark Week Podcast.
00:00:19:16 - 00:00:36:00
Luke Tipple
G’day everyone. Welcome to another episode of Shark Week, the podcast. I'm your host, Luke Tipple. And today we've got a really special episode because we have a legend of the shark filming industry. Now, before we get too deep into things, make sure you subscribe to this channel like the video and bring that little bell so you never miss another one of our weekly podcast.
00:00:37:05 - 00:01:04:08
Luke Tipple
Filming sharks is a massive industry, and I'm not just talking about Shark Week. It's everywhere. It's in our zeitgeist, it’s in our movies. There's more sharks getting filmed today than there have been for decades, but they still seem kind of elusive. And from the days of blue water, white death, where adventurous souls got into the water with chainmail and got bit by blue sharks to today, where people are quite happy swimming outside the cage with great whites, we've become very, very comfortable with them.
00:01:05:06 - 00:01:25:09
Luke Tipple
But we’ve also kinda had to ramp up what we're showing, the behavior that we're showing. So it becomes almost like shark porn. That's a very clickbait term, but that's kind of what it is. We're showing the very finite highlights and extreme behavior of sharks in order to teach people about them. Yes, but also to get them excited. But how sustainable is that?
00:01:25:11 - 00:01:29:15
Luke Tipple
Do we keep ratcheting it up and make more and more extreme shows on sharks?
00:01:30:23 - 00:01:38:21
Luke Tipple
Or do we reel it back a little bit and go more natural history? You know, it's an interesting question. And what we have to do is always be thinking about what is the best for sharks.
00:01:39:15 - 00:01:47:09
Luke Tipple
Is it good to have them being filmed all the time so that we can see them all the time so we learn more about them? And how does that help our conservation efforts? So to answer this question, we've brought.
00:01:48:10 - 00:02:02:04
Luke Tipple
In Shark Week legend Andy Casagrande. This guy is a top bloke. He's an Emmy Award winning filmmaker, and he's made more Shark Week shows than I think anyone else on the planet. If there's anybody who can answer these questions, it's him. So, Andy, how many shark shows have you done?
00:02:02:06 - 00:02:25:11
Andy Casagrande
You know what? I actually meant to count that before we did this. It's well over 150 shark documentaries, and it's actually, if you include all the footage that's been used that I've shot over the years and other documentaries, I've contributed to well over 200. I'll count counted eventually. But a lot of shark films, possibly more than anyone on the planet.
00:02:25:13 - 00:02:43:01
Luke Tipple
I think you'd be pretty close to that. We should count that because, you know, you could have a nice little badge of honor there. You know, we started out this show talking about the concept of shark porn, you know, this idea that there's this this category of filmmaking where we're just kind of showing like the highlight reel of sharks and why it's so attractive to people.
00:02:43:03 - 00:02:46:18
Luke Tipple
Do you think that term is derogatory or funny? Let's start with that.
00:02:46:19 - 00:03:03:05
Andy Casagrande
I mean, I find it a bit funny. Any time you mention the word porn, people's ears are going to perk up. They're going to pay attention. What are they talking about? And shark porn obviously is referring to like the jaws, the claws, the teeth, the scary parts of the shark that we don't always see, you know, everyday in real life.
00:03:03:05 - 00:03:25:12
Andy Casagrande
Like, you know, you kind of have to put the shark into a position where it bites at something at a certain angle to get these shots or whatever. And to me, it's a double edged sword. It draws people in and they want to see that. I was fascinated as a kid by the teeth, the arsenal. But at the same time, we want to be realistic and approach sharks, you know, objectively at the same time, don't want to demonize them, don't want to treat them like puppy dogs at the same time.
00:03:25:12 - 00:03:31:22
Andy Casagrande
But you kind of get a variety of all those aspects when you make a film and it's challenging.
00:03:32:00 - 00:03:45:01
Luke Tipple
It is, as you say, it's certainly a clickbait thing that that people use. And you know, beyond the actual term, the whole idea of showing a shark is just being this, you know, chomping eating machine at all times is. I mean, it is.
00:03:45:19 - 00:04:03:16
Luke Tipple
Disingenuous to what the shark is doing all the time. But if you showed what the shark was doing all the time, we'd be sitting here, you know, 24 hours a day watching a shark with some around doing nothing. Yeah, we just saw a study the other day that showed that swimmers or surfers in California are surrounded by great white sharks like 97% of the time.
00:04:03:18 - 00:04:08:13
Luke Tipple
Yeah, juveniles, you know, they're fish eaters. They're not necessarily going to be going after people.
00:04:09:23 - 00:04:11:22
Luke Tipple
But we're in the presence of sharks. All the time. They're not only doing the gnarly stuff.
00:04:12:04 - 00:04:35:20
Andy Casagrande
But that is incredible that it is. Right. What's happening in California out there with that many sharks, that many surfers. And, you know, certainly they're of the size class where they're still focused on smaller prey classes and sizes of prey. But at the same time, they eventually make that transition or they're targeting items that are our size. And not all the sharks out there mingling are juveniles.
00:04:35:20 - 00:04:42:20
Andy Casagrande
So it's pretty cool that they're coexisting and kind of like sharing the surf. Yeah, at least for now, which is good.
00:04:42:22 - 00:05:01:16
Luke Tipple
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that showed that sharks don't always swim around just trying to decide whether they want to bite a surfer all the time. You know, they're constantly making the decision not to you know, they're actually, you know, very capable of making intelligent decisions. But if we're looking at making shark films, I'm wanting to show this shark behavior.
00:05:01:18 - 00:05:17:01
Luke Tipple
Where is the fine line between where it becomes a little bit too much for people, whether like we're actually not only fascinating and we're kind of scaring a little bit too much to where they might think that, hey, sharks are just going to come and eat me all the time when in fact they're not.
00:05:17:03 - 00:05:38:21
Andy Casagrande
I think the more films they watch about sharks and the more they read, the more they learn, they'll realize that, like, certainly when sharks encounter humans in a negative manner and there’s fatalities. Recently in Egypt, there was quite an intense predatory attack or a tiger shark killed, killed a young person and it was pretty clear that that shark was trying to feed.
00:05:38:21 - 00:06:00:08
Andy Casagrande
It didn't seem to be a direct defensive attack. It wasn't a bite and spit. So I think, you know, when people learn about these attacks, these encounters, or they watch films where they they understand sharks, sensory systems and how they operate, now, sometimes they'll switch from their hearing to their ampullae of lorenzini or their lateral line, and they understand the biology of how these predators interact and hunt.
00:06:00:10 - 00:06:11:23
Andy Casagrande
It can make them safer in the water. Like if you're more vigilant, you maintain eye contact, don't swim around where there's lots of bait and lots of prey items, or you might become prey yourself, basically. Yeah.
00:06:12:01 - 00:06:33:05
Luke Tipple
So I think what I'm hearing you say is perhaps that people, if they were just to go and watch one shark film, they might come away with the wrong idea potentially about a species or an environment or something. But if they watch many shark films become educated about the species, become educated about the environment and how we deal with it, then they're going to have that well-rounded knowledge that the sharks aren't just going to go and, you know, bite everything that they see.
00:06:33:07 - 00:06:34:11
Luke Tipple
Right. That be fair?
00:06:34:13 - 00:06:57:00
Andy Casagrande
Yeah, totally. I mean, and sharks are really the only species on the planet that's getting this many documentaries made about them. I mean, between all the networks, you're looking at 50 plus hours documentaries made every year about sharks. It's crazy. It's crazy. And so some of them are going to be focused on entertainment, hyping it up, scaring you.
00:06:57:03 - 00:07:09:14
Andy Casagrande
Some are going to be focused on the science, the engineering, the technology, and then some are just going to be like cocaine sharks and crazy stuff. And, you know, like typical Hollywood, you know, whatever. So, you know, it's actually.
00:07:09:14 - 00:07:20:22
Luke Tipple
What I'm looking forward to saying that's going to be on Shark Week this year, I believe. And in all of this time filming Sharks. How is it that you've come away without being bit?
00:07:21:00 - 00:07:35:13
Andy Casagrande
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, a lot of it is just being hyper vigilant and always expecting that it could happen, you know, like the whole like hoping for the best, planning for the worst kind of thing. You never want to go into a situation where you're like, Oh my God, I'm going to get bit, I'm going to die.
00:07:35:18 - 00:08:00:00
Andy Casagrande
You know, like, you can't think like that. You have to be realistic. You have to be calculated. There's always these risks that you take that are calculated and you just have to be ready for when things go sideways. I've only had a handful of times where sharks have tried to bite me and try to, you know, you know, remove limbs or try to kill me, not kill me in a malicious way, but where they could have made bad contact with me.
00:08:00:02 - 00:08:22:15
Andy Casagrande
But it's always around a a situation where they're feeding they're hunting their bait. We're using bait or, you know, so just being vigilant, respectful. And, you know, when you realize you need to get out, you should get out. And in general, people interacting in the oceans, the more eye contact you make with a with a shark, the less likely it's going to want to try to interact with you in a negative fashion.
00:08:22:15 - 00:08:34:17
Andy Casagrande
So, I mean, you look at how long you've been dive most sharks have you ever had? Have you ever had any you ever been bit? Don’t lie now. Don’t lie.
00:08:34:17 - 00:08:52:14
Luke Tipple
I've been bitten in chainmail. But that was intentional. Okay. I've been nipped on the back of the head, which was unintentional. That was a lemon shark out at Tiger Beach. I was really good. Just kind of got a tooth stuck in my hood. I think it was coming after the bubbles, to be honest, you know. I was exhaling.
00:08:52:14 - 00:08:55:06
Luke Tipple
And I don’t like to wear hoods a lot anymore because of that.
00:08:55:12 - 00:09:02:00
Andy Casagrande
I hate hoods. I hate hoods.
00:09:04:19 - 00:09:23:09
Luke Tipple
On productions and stuff, even though there is this inherent sense of danger that that we have in the show and of course there is and we are manufacturing scenarios to be able to to show off the shark's behavior. You know, we're starting feeding frenzies. We're doing all these things to be able to capture that, you know, one or 2% of behavior in the period of time that we have with them underwater.
00:09:23:11 - 00:09:37:05
Luke Tipple
So we're constantly putting ourselves into dangerous situations, but we're also factoring in everything that could happen. So we have the right safety support. We have the right crew there. Right. You know, we've got cameras in front of us. There's always something to bump a shark off with. Well, generally there is.
00:09:37:07 - 00:09:37:21
Andy Casagrande
Yeah.
00:09:37:23 - 00:09:59:17
Luke Tipple
So I think probably the the more hairy situations is when we haven't really been filming, you know, like at Guadalupe. I had a great white very seriously try to take my leg off and that was, you know kind of I think of it as kind of my fault even though it wasn't. But that was on a freediving shoot and I entered the water, no splashing or anything.
00:09:59:17 - 00:10:16:20
Luke Tipple
And that was six or seven great whites in the water. I counted four or five out in front of me, and I looked down under the boat and I was one coming up, mock spade straight up at me. And I okay, this is this is going to go bad. I was vertical in the water at that time. I managed to turn turtle flip down and get my eyes on them.
00:10:16:22 - 00:10:39:08
Luke Tipple
I think that's about as much as I was able to do. But it gave at that moment a pause to be able to deflect and it swam away. But it came within 12 inches of my fin with its mouth fully open. You know. And then there was one time when I was working shipwrecks back home in Australia, and we just we used to live boat over the shipwreck called the Yongala.
00:10:39:10 - 00:10:42:17
Andy Casagrande
Why does it sound so familiar? Where is it?
00:10:42:19 - 00:11:05:03
Luke Tipple
It's in north Queensland, inside the Barrier Reef. It's a shipwreck. Several people died as a it's a natural shipwreck and it's it's called either the the first or second best shipwreck dive in the world. And it's just spectacular. Big megafauna all over it. And what I used to love about that job was we'd motor over the top of it and we'd be live boating the captains.
00:11:05:03 - 00:11:27:17
Luke Tipple
I'd go, I'd jump off the back with a a couple of safety tanks and the line and I'd go down and tie off. And so I was alone in the water by myself. So I'd always get to see the coolest stuff, right? It was always a big animals. It was quite often big bull sharks down there, big rays and stuff, and generally they'd take off by the time the tourist divers got to come down.
00:11:27:19 - 00:11:46:13
Luke Tipple
One time I jumped in and noticed half a giant trevally floating past me. Oh, that's that's pretty interesting. Why is that the case? And I'd literally landed in the middle of the bull shark feeding frenzy who'd nailed this probably forty pound trevally. And I was now I was down messing with it. So, yeah, they chased me all the way to the wreck It was.
00:11:46:13 - 00:11:49:07
Luke Tipple
I had to fend them off with the tank. It it was pretty gnarly.
00:11:49:07 - 00:11:52:02
Andy Casagrande
Oh, wow.
00:11:52:04 - 00:11:55:18
Luke Tipple
But on camera. Never really had anything like that. Everything generally is pretty controlled.
00:11:55:19 - 00:12:15:18
Andy Casagrande
Yeah. Yeah, usually pretty lucky. Like this year I was using this little, like, a laser system to get measure the gape of the great whites underwater and amused down. And like a fifty pound camera in front of me, this thing was like a five pound piece of PDC, and the shark came up, and then I realized it was going to try to bite it.
00:12:15:18 - 00:12:48:10
Andy Casagrande
And all I could do is like kind of try to push the shark off with this little like Home Depot, like PVC part, which was pretty funny. It was enough to deter it. But yeah, like you said, man, you you don't expect it to happen, but you're always prepared for it. And yeah, so far and in the years we've been doing this, I haven't had anyone, you know, I've been on a few shoots or people have been bit usually on the hand or some extremity, but for the most part no one's died and that's good.
00:12:48:12 - 00:13:11:06
Luke Tipple
Yeah, there is that expression. The, you know, the cameraman never dies. And I think with the with shark filming what people do see on camera but don't really understand is that you're right, you've got this great big heavy piece of metal that's directly in front of your face. And any time a shark gets too close, your job is literally to push that thing into its face, which in turn deflects the shark because there's nothing to eat there.
00:13:11:08 - 00:13:20:01
Luke Tipple
Yeah. So you see all these, like, really tight shots of a shark coming up and, like, biting at the camera and stuff. And, you know, they're biting a camera, not the person. So job done.
00:13:20:01 - 00:13:21:16
Andy Casagrande
Yeah, exactly.
00:13:21:18 - 00:13:32:09
Luke Tipple
What is the pitch process for you look like? Because I think a lot of people would look at, you know, all the the shark stuff that gets made, not just your eyes, but everybody's and think how many more shark stories are there to tell.
00:13:32:11 - 00:13:56:21
Andy Casagrande
Right. Right. Every year we think the same thing. Like how our what else is there to learn about great whites or hammerheads or the Megamouth shocker. But the pitch process, it's a bizarre process. I don't do it that often, to be honest. I mostly focus on the cinematography. I mostly focus on the field work, not really the development or the pitch process.
00:13:56:21 - 00:14:12:06
Andy Casagrande
But I did pitch a film this year for Shark Week with the execs were asking me like, Hey man, so you know, who do you want to work with this year? What do you want to do? And I'm like, Oh, I miss working with my buddy Paul De Gelder. Yeah, Paul is great. We love to team up with Paul.
00:14:12:06 - 00:14:32:21
Andy Casagrande
What do you want to do? And I was like, I'd love to just blindfold Paul De Gelder and put him in front of some tiger sharks where he can't see anything. And they're like, this is awesome. So we'll do it. And I'm like, Man, I got to tell you the story. The rest of the the human sensory system, shark sensory systems, how they're going to interact that they're not.
00:14:33:02 - 00:14:41:04
Andy Casagrande
Don't worry, we love it. Just do it. Blindfold Paul, put him in with some tiger sharks and make sure he comes back alive.
00:14:41:06 - 00:14:58:05
Luke Tipple
So for the people who are now looking forward, just like me to seeing the show where you're just blindfolding a guy and throwing him under water, explain to us the concept behind it, because it seems like somebody green lighting something where he's just going underwater with a blindfold on. Where's the story in that? Tell us what you actually wanted to do with it.
00:14:58:07 - 00:15:20:13
Andy Casagrande
Exactly. I mean, I knew that they would be interested in sort of the the stunt the way anytime you endanger somebody's life with sharks like or come close to it is always, you know, an interest of humans and the network. But with Paul, the whole idea was, you know, Paul has survived a shark attack, a pretty intense one.
00:15:20:18 - 00:15:45:21
Andy Casagrande
And so other friends of mine and a lot of people that experience these negative encounters with sharks would report getting an eerie feeling before it happened, or they just felt like something wasn't right. And so we were investigating or investigate essentially human sensory systems versus shark sensory systems, how they work with each other against each other, how they work underwater, obviously.
00:15:45:23 - 00:16:00:00
Andy Casagrande
And it was pretty fascinating. We also use different technologies to test different theories. And the whole idea was to try to see can humans actually, you know, predict or pre detect a shark attack. So, yeah.
00:16:00:02 - 00:16:01:22
Luke Tipple
What was the conclusion of that?
00:16:02:00 - 00:16:14:13
Andy Casagrande
Essentially not really. You know, like a lot of people would report these eerie feelings and then psychologists and people would debunk say, well, you've placed this eerie feeling over this event because it happened to you. Right.
00:16:14:15 - 00:16:30:23
Luke Tipple
Well, that makes a lot of sense. Somebody who's been through that experience is going to be obviously traumatized by it. They're going to cue into the factors and signals that might be around them and just be a little more hyper aware. So for the shows. So that's one that you pitched. Obviously, you're doing a lot of shows where you're not part of that sort of creative process.
00:16:30:23 - 00:16:47:16
Luke Tipple
You're probably getting a phone call you're walking onto, onto said or onto the boat or whatever it might be. And being given your marching orders, how many times do you say, Nah, that's not going to work? Or how about we go a different direction?
00:16:47:16 - 00:17:11:09
Andy Casagrande
Out loud do I say that? Or in the back of my head? I mean, there have been a few projects that I've had to turn down for. I don't know, personal reasons. I just didn't feel like it was my my type of it's just not how I interact with sharks or whatever. I've had them asked me a few times, Hey, can we dangle you on a crane with great white sharks to put on one of your cameras?
00:17:11:09 - 00:17:26:22
Andy Casagrande
Or will you get lowered from a 100 foot like tower into the dark by yourself and those ones I did say yes to, but some of them were definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So sometimes I'll say no.
00:17:27:00 - 00:17:28:06
Luke Tipple
Okay, So where do you draw the line?
00:17:28:08 - 00:17:46:22
Andy Casagrande
Yeah, where I draw the line. I mean, really, it's about respecting the sharks. If, if, if for some reason there's disrespect to the sharks or it can be, you know, harmful to the sharks or anything where it's just like, yeah, you know, just got to respect these predators. They're amazing, but they're not circus animals. They are very polite.
00:17:47:00 - 00:18:02:14
Andy Casagrande
They do a lot of like, they'll interact with you. They'll, you know, you'll see them elicit behaviors that you you hope that they will elicit. But at the end of the day, they're wild animals. And you got to just kind of let them be when they need to be let be.
00:18:02:16 - 00:18:27:03
Luke Tipple
Where do you think shark filmmaking is going? And this is kind of not necessarily just Shark Week, but, you know, the category as a whole. You spoke about natural history. And I remember back to the days of, you know, the blue chip film making, you know, where it was, David Attenborough and Jacques Cousteau and these kind of expedition based things where the animals weren't they weren't given personalities so much as just having their characters explained.
00:18:27:07 - 00:18:45:00
Luke Tipple
Now we're in the world of, I think storytelling, you know, was storytelling on behalf of the animals, which is a natural progression, I think. Where do we go? Do we do we make them more personable or do we kind of like real it back into blue chip? Like what's the direction forward?
00:18:45:02 - 00:19:09:08
Andy Casagrande
That's a good question, man. I mean, I always like reeling it back to the blue chip to just let the animals kind of unfold in front of the lens, so to speak. You know, there's a lot of that anthropomorphication going on where we instill human emotions and human objectives and motives into animal behavior. At the same time, they feel hunger, anger, they get jealous, they get frustrated.
00:19:09:08 - 00:19:38:07
Andy Casagrande
Animals do feel a wide variety of emotions. Obviously, that humans do. So I think a mix of both. All I know is, is it quality over quantity? Is it quantity over quality? I have I have no this, to be honest, when shark Week comes out, my head is so exploded with sharks from from shooting the shows to watching their rough cuts the efficacy edits doing some voiceover you know checking that the graphics the whole process is it's it's intense.
00:19:38:07 - 00:19:49:02
Andy Casagrande
And then when Shark Week comes out, it's an avalanche of sharks or this it's it's almost like it's incredible it's shark week I mean what the hell what's a.
00:19:49:02 - 00:20:08:00
Luke Tipple
What’s a moment that you've had out there that you thought all this is this is just for me. Have you ever seen Walter Mitty, The film Walter Mitty? Yeah. And you know, the that photographer is out there and he's a he's tracking down the snow leopards and he finally sees after months in the field and then he doesn't shoot the photo. And it’s like what are you doing?
00:20:08:00 - 00:20:11:22
Luke Tipple
It is like, well, that one was just for me. What's that moment for you?
00:20:12:00 - 00:20:28:12
Andy Casagrande
That's a good question, man. Maybe like great white sharks mating. You know, we're out there. It's all happening. And I'm like, you know, it's just for me. And then I get out of the water and they would all they'd probably throw me back in and try to feed me to the shark after refusing to film it. Wow. I don't know.
00:20:28:12 - 00:20:35:03
Andy Casagrande
That is a really ood questions, man. What about you? What's your what's your Walter Mitty?
00:20:35:05 - 00:20:57:15
Luke Tipple
Oh, my Walter Mitty. Oh, yeah. Hard question, isn't it? Yeah. For me, it would have been. We're doing tech diving on the shipwrecks out in the Marshall Islands, and I was tagging sharks. We're trying to find sharks on the wrecks to prove that they were relating with the with the local islands and being down there, penetrating inside the wreck, knowing that I wouldn't find a shark in there.
00:20:57:15 - 00:21:12:11
Luke Tipple
But having that moment of being like, I've dreamed about being in this location my entire life, that was. That was pretty special. Then, of course, I want to tag the shark, got the job done. But you do have those moments in the field where it becomes just a special moment for yourself.
00:21:12:12 - 00:21:16:04
Andy Casagrande
Right? Yeah. No, that's cool man.
00:21:16:06 - 00:21:27:10
Luke Tipple
So for somebody who wants to get into this line of work, into underwater filmmaking, particularly with sharks, give them like your top three tips for what they should do or be good at before they get into it.
00:21:27:12 - 00:21:56:00
Andy Casagrande
You know, the number one question I get is how do I do what you do? How do I become a filmmaker or researcher? How do I work with sharks? How can I do it right now? I don't want to go to college like a lot of people, that there's certain paths. So you could take, certainly. But I think for me it was all about putting myself into places where there were professionals doing the jobs that I wanted to do, whether it was a scientist, a boat captain, a professional diver.
00:21:56:06 - 00:22:11:01
Andy Casagrande
Certainly if you want to work in the field of sharks, being a good diver is important. It's not critical. I mean, you could still be a tech on the boat. You could learn a lot about sharks without ever getting into the water with them. I think you've got to really be passionate about sharks. It helps sometimes to specialize.
00:22:11:03 - 00:22:30:12
Andy Casagrande
If you really love hammerheads, makos, tigers, or whatever it is, you know, there are over 500 plus species. You pick one that you love the most and try to team up with scientists that are, you know, studying them and creating conservation initiatives around the world to protect them. I don't know if this is this is stuff you're good at.
00:22:30:16 - 00:22:35:13
Andy Casagrande
What would you what would you tell people?
00:22:35:15 - 00:22:51:06
Luke Tipple
Oh, you know. I think I have much the same opinion as you. There is no one path. You know, I studied marine biology. I had all the intent of the world of going on and doing a PhD, but I got a job immediately after my undergrad. You know, I did three years of marine biology and got a job tagging whale sharks on Honduras.
00:22:51:06 - 00:23:12:12
Luke Tipple
Like, why would I do more college when I can go do what I want to be doing? So I went and did that and then, you know, just just followed the pop, just stayed open to opportunity and, you know, definitely got lucky, but worked really bloody hard to be out, to continue shining a light on sharks. And I think that's maybe for me, that was kind of one of the most important things.
00:23:12:12 - 00:23:31:04
Luke Tipple
It was always about the animals, you know, it's always been about working with the animals and about the science behind the animals. And sometimes you have to make those tough decisions to not put yourself full first, if you know what that means, because that's the only way you can stick to your guns and actually make a name for yourself.
00:23:31:04 - 00:23:53:19
Luke Tipple
So I think, you know, if somebody was saying, hey, you know, up and coming YouTuber or want to work for Discovery or something, I'll be like, you know, find your voice and stick to your voice and make sure it's one that you can defend in ten years time. Yeah. And be proud of and, and that voice and that sort of integrity is something that people will appreciate and like.
00:23:53:21 - 00:24:07:07
Luke Tipple
Yeah, hopefully. And that's how you stay employed and keep your job. Yeah, I guess that's all I'd say. Other than that, you know, and a lot of time in the water and don't be don't be that guy on the boat who gets his hand stuck in the rope.
00:24:07:09 - 00:24:27:00
Andy Casagrande
But yeah, and you know, just back to like people that want to get involved, there's so many outlets now like even if if someone right now watching this or listening wants to work on Shark Week, go out and make your first little mini documentary and put it on YouTube. You might get more views then than this, you know, So anyway.
00:24:27:02 - 00:24:34:06
Luke Tipple
Some good advice. All right. Well, we look forward to seeing much more of you on Shark Week this year. I think you're on what is it, four shows this year.
00:24:34:08 - 00:24:35:14
Andy Casagrande
Seven? Yeah.
00:24:35:16 - 00:24:45:13
Luke Tipple
Seven shows. You're an animal. Well, I appreciate your time. I know you're over in Sweden and and traveling over there, so thanks for hanging out with us and we'll chat to after your next project.
00:24:45:15 - 00:24:48:06
Andy Casagrande
All right, buddy. Happy Shark Week, everyone. Thanks, Luke.
00:24:48:08 - 00:25:00:04
Luke Tipple
All right. It's time for our shark bite where Sierra leaves us with an ocean Fact to end the show. What have you got for us today?
00:25:00:06 - 00:25:08:19
Sierra Kehoe
Yeah, So I know we've been talking a lot about conservation and why it's so important to protect sharks, so I thought that we could actually have a number as to how many sharks are threatened.
00:25:08:21 - 00:25:11:01
Luke Tipple
Good to know what we’re working with, what have you got?
00:25:11:03 - 00:25:23:08
Sierra Kehoe
So unfortunately, of the 536 assessed species, over a third of them, 35.9% of them are threatened. And that includes species that are vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.
00:25:23:10 - 00:25:31:08
Luke Tipple
That's crazy. So that's over a third that are at some peril. Why is that a 0.9?
00:25:31:10 - 00:25:42:15
Sierra Kehoe
It's a great question. I actually didn't find a reported whole number as to the number of shark species that are endangered. When you do the math out, it ends up with some decimal. So not sure what's going on with that.
00:25:42:17 - 00:25:58:18
Luke Tipple
Okay. Yeah, it's probably because assessing species over different areas of the planet, you know, one species might be threatened in one place and critically endangered another place in the doing some statistic, but it would be nice to have a whole number. But regardless, over 30% of sharks. So where does that leave us?
00:25:58:20 - 00:26:12:23
Sierra Kehoe
So I don't know exactly what the number is for sharks specifically, but for all sharks, rays and chimeras, over the last decade, we've increased the number of species threatened from 25% to 37%.
00:26:13:01 - 00:26:20:05
Luke Tipple
And what's driving that? Because it seems like in the last decade we've been doing a lot of work to prevent that happening. So what's causing it?
00:26:20:09 - 00:26:29:01
Sierra Kehoe
Yeah. So while there's a ton of conservation efforts going on, a lot of reports are saying that it's an increase in fishing pressure over the years.
00:26:29:03 - 00:26:34:20
Luke Tipple
Yeah, that makes sense. Well, it seems like we've come a long way, but there's still a long way to go. Thanks for that, Sierra.
00:26:34:22 - 00:26:39:11
Sierra Kehoe
Anytime.
00:26:39:12 - 00:26:52:06
Luke Tipple
That's it for another episode of Shark Week, the podcast. I want to thank you for listening and I hope you learned something from this. And I want to thank Andy Casagrande. You're a good bloke. Thanks for joining us. My look forward to having a beer with you soon. Thanks for listening, guys, Chat to you soon.
00:26:52:08 - 00:27:03:04
Unknown
You’re listening to the Shark Week Podcast.
00:27:03:06 - 00:27:32:14
Sierra Kehoe
Shark Week. The podcast is produced by Delve Media for Warner Brothers Discovery. Luke Tipple is the executive producer and our writer and producer is Yale Rice, our researcher and associate producer is Sierra Kehoe for Warner Brothers Discovery. The executive producer is Christina Bavetta, and the coordinating producer is Corin Wilson. You can follow our show wherever you get your podcasts, and we'd love it if you could take a second to leave us a five star review and subscribe to help our mission to give sharks a voice.